Plot Synopsis (continued)
A
rugged, single-minded, self-made, autocratic Texas cattle king, white-haired
Tom Dunson owns the sprawling cattle empire with "thousands
of heads of good beef." Dunson's greatest challenge, after the
Civil War in the year 1865, is that he is in need of cash and there's
no cash market for his cattle locally. The beef market for Texan
livestock-owners has collapsed in the South due to the war, and its
takeover by 'carpetbaggers.'
In a desperate attempt to avoid going broke, he is
faced with the arduous task of rounding up the entire herd and transporting
it away from the South - north across the Red River on an untested
trail-trek to Sedalia, Missouri, where prices were higher and rail
facilities stretch out to St. Louis and other markets:
Dunson: And there as they stand, there isn't a head
worth a plug three cent piece...It all happened while you were
away, Matt. More cattle than a man could gather elsewhere in two
lifetimes. And I'm broke. Unless we can move 'em, I'm broke...I'm
not gonna take it haunch-backed like the rest around here. There's
no market for cattle in Texas...Then I'll take 'em where there
is a market, if it means drivin' them a thousand miles.
Matt: Missouri?
Dunson: Yeah.
Matt: That's what I figured.
Dunson: And have you two been doin' a lot of figurin'? While you
were at it, did you figure out the best way to get 'em there?
Matt: Which trail to take? Yeah.
His intelligent, gentler foster son, Matthew Garth/Dunson
(Montgomery Clift in his first film role, although not released until
after his next film, Fred Zinnemann's The Search (1948)) is
revealed following a reverse tracking shot. Relaxed and chewing on
a blade of grass, he is now grown up and has become Tom's right hand
man [symbolically, he wears the snake bracelet that was handed down
to him]. Matt suggests a cattle drive route - to San Sabo, then Meridian,
and then along the Brazos, but Dunson is immediately critical with
two emphatic comments:
That's the long way around...I said, that's the long
way.
Matt argues for his suggested route because "there's
good water, up, clear all the way up to the Red." Having just
returned from the Civil War, he once led a patrol that way and knows
the land. Typical of the tension that will develop between father
and son, Dunson disagrees about the best way to bring Texas beef
(ten thousand head of cattle) north to the rest of the nation. To
accentuate their dueling personalities, Groot yells: "Draw!",
provoking the two men to wheel around with their guns drawn at each
other. Groot teases Dunson that Matt beat him to his gun ("He
beat ya").
Speaking alone to Groot, Matt senses the strain and
fear in the look of Dunson's face, built up over years of struggle
and sacrifice while carving his empire between the time of the wagon
train massacre (1851) and the end of the Civil War (1865). Groot
is relieved and thankful that Matt has returned safely from the war
to join his foster father:
Matt: He's afraid.
Groot: Afraid? Why you're crazy, you're looney.
Matt: Am I?
Groot: Sure, sure, I'm scared too. But I've been here, watchin' and
seein'...seein' a man fightin', fightin' with his soul and gut to
hang onto this place. Fourteen years of it. And it cost him dear
too. It cost him a woman. The only woman he ever wanted...You knew
about that. It cost him the killin' of them seven graves, men who
tried to take the place away from him. But that weren't hard. Not
that.
Matt: No, he knows that kind of fighting. What else?
Groot: And then come the war when you was away. He learned a lot
of things for hisself. He learned that a ranch ain't only beef but
it's money. But the war took all the money out of the South. He didn't
know about money, Matt. He never had none. He didn't know what to
do.
Matt: You mean he just doesn't know who to fight.
Groot: Yeah.
Matt: That's all right.
Groot: He's just been waitin' for you to head the herd north and
drive. A full drive that's never been done before. Nine, ten thousand
head of cattle clear to Missouri.
Matt: We could make it.
Groot: We...well Matt, I'm glad you come home, cause, well, I'm glad
you come home.
Dunson orders the rounding up of all the cattle on
the range to brand them before pushing north on the old trail to
Missouri. His cowhands brand cattle that are already marked with
brands from other ranchers - neighboring Meeker and past enemy Diego,
but Matt respects the ownership of the steers and lets cowhand Teeler
(Paul Fix) free them. Dunson rides up and arrogantly demands unquestioning
allegiance from Matt - and is obliged:
Dunson: I said 'Brand him.'
Matt: He's wearing a Meeker iron.
Dunson: I can't see it.
Matt: (To Teeler) Brand him.
Teeler: All right, but the next one up's another Diego.
Matt: Brand him. Put the iron on all of 'em, Teeler. Anything you
see, slap it with a 'Red River D' and burn it deep.
Dunson: Why not?
Matt: You're gonna wind up branding every rump in the state of Texas
except mine.
Dunson: (challenging him) Hand me that iron, Teeler. (pause) You
don't think I'd do it, do ya?
Matt: (smiling) I don't.
Dunson: Matt, I'm goin' to Missouri with every steer, cow, and bull
that I can lay my hands on.
Matt: I think Meeker might be real pleased to see our brand on his
stock.
Dunson: That I'll argue with Meeker.
Just then, Meeker rides up with other horsemen, knowing
of Dunson's drive to Missouri. Word has been spread that there are
'Missouri border gangs' that sabotage cattle drives after crossing
the Red River, killing the cowhands and stealing the herds. Dunson
is unworried about his own chances: "Nobody's gonna take my
cattle." He also forbids one of Meeker's notorious gunmen, Cherry
Valance (John Ireland) from checking the herd for Meeker's strays.
But then Dunson admits that they have indeed taken some of Meeker's
cattle: "All right, we rounded up some of your stock and some
of Diego's and some of everybody else's around here...I haven't got
the time or the inclination to cut 'em out. So I'll drive 'em to
Missouri and give you two dollars a head when I get back." Without
any other options, Meeker accepts Dunson's offer.
Cherry changes allegiances and offers to work for Dunson
for wages of "ten dollars a month, triple if the steers bring
fifteen dollars at the railroad,"
but there are other risky considerations: "We lose the herd, you
lose your wages." After being hired, Cherry admires Matt's gun
(and Matt does the same with Cherry's pistol) - a scene often interpreted
as homosexually-charged, with Cherry making covert advances toward
Matt. Matt and Cherry both prove their well-renowned reputations as
sharpshooters to each other in a competitive target practice session
with a tin can. Both of them compliment each other on their shooting
skills:
Cherry: That's a good looking gun you were about
to use back there. Can I see it? (Matt turns, strokes his
nose with his thumb and looks a bit amused, then hands his gun
over. Cherry takes the gun.) Maybe you'd like to see mine. (Cherry
draws his own, and reciprocates by handing it to Matt. Cherry
examines Matt's gun.) Nice! Awful nice! (Looking somewhat
sideways at Matt) You know, there are only two things more
beautiful than a good gun: a Swiss watch or a woman from anywhere.
You ever had a good Swiss watch?
Matt: (pointing toward a tin can in the distance) Go ahead! Try it!
(Cherry fires a shot and knocks a can into the air. Matt also hits
the can in the air with a shot of his own)
Cherry: Hey! That's very good! (Matt shoots at another can, knocking
it into the air. Cherry hits it in the air with a shot of his own.)
Matt: Hey! Hey! That's good too! Go on! Keep it going!
Both of them alternate shots to keep a can moving.
They both consider themselves expert shots: "That puts two of
us at the head of the list." Matt cautions to "leave room
for a third" - Dunson, who taught him how to shoot. To Bunk
Kenneally (Ivan Perry), Groot observes their "peculiar"
kind of fun as a foreshadowing of the future, predicting (unsuccessfully)
that the two will fight each other: "They was having some fun
- peculiar kind of fun, sizing each other up for the future. Them two's
gonna tangle for certain and when they do, it ain't gonna be pretty
because they got a thousand miles to do it in."
Groot, who will operate the chuck wagon for the cattle
drive, loaded with flour, beans and sugar, halts Bunk's stealing
of sugar from the supplies by tossing his knife at him ("I could
take the end of your nose off just as easy. A man in your age stealin'
sugar!"). Before the big cattle drive, Groot and a Cherokee
Indian named Quo (Chief Yowlachie) play a game of poker and Groot
is forced to bet a "half interest" in his false "store
teeth" to match Quo's silver dollar bet on the table. When Groot
loses the bet, it is decided that he can have his teeth back on loan
during mealtimes. With the teeth, the Indian dubs himself: "Two
Jaw Quo."
A silence falls over all the cowhands when Dunson enters
and announces the start of the treacherous cattle drive, uncompromisingly
outlining the dangers and ground rules. The main restriction is that
once a man signs on, he cannot quit:
Well, we start tomorrow. We're goin' to Missouri
with ten thousand head. Most of you men have come back to Texas
from the war. You came back to nothing. You find your homes gone,
your cattle scattered, and your land stolen by carpetbaggers. Well
there's no money and no work because there's no market for beef
in the South. But there is in Missouri. So we're goin' to Missouri...Cumberland
didn't make it. No one else has. That's the reason I'm here. I
want you all to know what you're up against. You probably already
know, but I want to make sure you do. We got a thousand miles to
go. Ten miles a day'll be good. Fifteen will be luck. It'll be
dry country, dry wells when we get to 'em. There'll be wind, rain.
There's gonna be Indian Territory - how bad I don't know. When
we get to Missouri, there'll be border gangs. It's gonna be a fight
all the way. But we'll get there. Nobody has to come along. We'll
still have a job for ya when we get back. Now remember this! Every
man who signs on for this drive agrees to finish it. There'll be
no quittin' along the way, not by me and not by you! There's no
hard feelings if you don't want to go. But just let me know now.
Most of the men choose to stay and "sign on" with
Matt for the drive that begins at sunup. Groot is the first one to
actually sign the oath (with a great flourish of the hand and quill
pen), and he confirms his intention to finish the drive with a large
X (or cross) signature: "Let me sign first, Matt." His
signature clearly denotes that he is illiterate.
In one of the most memorable scenes of the film, the
men are just about to embark on their drive early the next morning
- it is mostly dark and eerily quiet as dawn on the prairie approaches.
On horseback, Dunson surveys the scene, concluding that everything
looks ready for their departure. The camera, adopting Dunson's point
of view, slowly pans over the entire landscape of mounted cowboys,
cattle herd, plains and mountains - a semi-circular 180 degree, counter-clockwise
pan as everyone waits for his command to embark on the difficult
journey. At the end of the continuous pan, the camera rests on Dunson
(taking Matt's point-of-view perspective from his horse), linking
the two together!
When everything looks ready, Tom gives his nod to Matt
to begin the trek across the Chisholm Trail.
Take 'em to Missouri, Matt.
The drive commences to the railhead (at Sedalia, Missouri)
that serves the North and the East. In a montage of images, the cowboys
wave their hats in the air, cry and call out "yip-ee" and "ya-hoo" with
open mouths to get the cattle moving out on their long trek. A quick
close-up of the faces of each one shouting out and whirling around
captures their determined enthusiasm and fearlessness. Comically,
Groot's own whooping 'yahoo' collapses into a wheezing cough.
Dunson looks out on the sight of the great herd beginning
to move:
Dunson: There they are, Matt. Fourteen years of hard
work. And they say we can't make the drive.
Matt: They could be wrong.
Dunson: They'd better be.
During their first campfire on their heroic journey,
Cherry, who is familiar with the land to the north from a previous
trip, suggests a shorter route to a possible cattle market at a railhead
in Abilene, Kansas (hearsay from a "girl"), but Dunson
stubbornly insists on heading toward Missouri and refuses to alter
their direction:
Cherry: Why drive 'em to Missouri? Why not turn west
at the Red and head 'em for Kansas?...There's a railroad in Kansas,
too...I saw the one in Topeka, and there's one in Abilene...
Buster McGee (Noah Beery): Abilene, that's further west!
Matt: Did you see it in Abilene?
Cherry: I didn't get there. I met a girl in Kansas City. She fancied
she could sing. She had...
Matt: You know, if we could head west at the Red...
Groot: We'd save ourselves a heap of...
Dunson (interrupting): We're goin' to Missouri. I've seen buyers
and cash in Sedalia. (To Cherry) What have you seen in Abilene?
Cherry: Not a thing. Just the girl told me...
Dunson: We're goin' to Missouri. (Dunson walks off.)
Cherry: (To Matt about Dunson) I suppose if I tangled with him, I'd
have to take you on too.
Matt: You'll find him a handful by himself.
The page of the diary turns once again, describing
how the rigors of the trip are beginning to take their toll:
To Dunson it was just a job, a big job. Ever north
they drove ten thousand cattle crawling through hot, dry country
and by the end of the first two weeks they had covered over one
hundred and sixty miles. Every mile had taken its toll --- quietly
The sprawling scenes of the long, hard, dusty cattle
drive over the trail, driving the cattle herd to market, are realistically
detailed - breakfast at 4:30 am, on the trail at 5 am, saddle-sore
cowboys, and horse-leg injuries. Even Groot suffers from not having
his false teeth - except at mealtimes:
Groot: If you was half-human, you'd give 'em back
to me. You can see I could use 'em. Besides, it would help keep
the dust out of my mouth.
Quo: Keep mouth shut. Dust not get in.
Groot: Bet I ate ten pounds in the last sixteen days. Before this
shenanigan is over, I'll probably eat enough land to incorporate
in the Union. The state of Groot.
A second time, Groot lashes Bunk with his bullwhip
for stealing more sugar from the chuckwagon:
Your sweet tooth is almost as bad as having a whiskey
tongue or liking a woman.
The next diary page describes the tyranny under which
they were being driven by Dunson, and the long, laborious, frustrating
days, lack of food, water, and rest:
...the days became longer, sleep was at a premium,
hard work became harder and Dunson became a tyrant. After three
weeks, they reached San Sabo. Here at last was water and a place
to rest tired muscles and sore aching bones.
When Matt suggests stopping at San Sabo's watering
hole, Dunson disagrees with Matt and demands that they move on to
water three or four miles further ahead: "I'll do the thinking.
Keep 'em going."
Further along in their dangerous journey, the diary
records how difficult the terrain became:
Thirty days on the trail and they reached the Brazos.
The way now became harder. Hills and rocks impeded their progress.
Each weary mile became endless. The men became morose and worried.
The cattle restless and jumpy. Each day the job of...
Coyote howls make the herd jumpy and skittish, but
it is Bunk Kenneally who inadvertently sends the herd into an out-of-control
stampede when he again selfishly reaches to steal a dab of sugar
in the chuckwagon - the third time - and upsets all the pots and
pans. It is a furious scene (almost ten thousand cattle running wild)
as Dunson cries out: "Stampede!" The wranglers eventually
outrun the herd and surround it, but one of the drovers Dan Latimer
(Harry Carey, Jr.) is killed. Just a few moments before the deadly
stampede, Dan had told Dunson that he was excited about finishing
the drive and having one hundred dollars in his pocket for the first
time so he can afford to "buy the old Chapman place" and
purchase a pair of red shoes for his wife. [The fact that the shoes
are colored red is significant, given the other motifs of red in
the film, i.e., the Red River, spilt red blood from death, etc.]
A shamed, contrite, and penitent Kenneally feels tremendous
guilt for his action. As he stands in front of the chuckwagon where
he was reaching for a taste of sugar, his guilt and ostracism are
visualized by the judgmental shadows of the returning men passing
over him. Latimer, the fallen cowboy is to be buried and grieved
over in the morning, and Dunson is faithful to Dan's wishes - his
widow is to be paid in full for the drive "as if he finished
it," including the receipt of a pair of red shoes:
Dunson: And get her, well, anything else you can
think of.
Matt: Like a pair of red shoes, maybe?
Dunson: That's the way he wanted it, wasn't it?
At Latimer's burial in the second funeral scene in
the film, the cowhand receives Dunson's eulogy: "You brought
nothing into this world and it's certain we can carry nothing out.
The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away. Blessed be the name of
the Lord. Amen." Miraculously, a cloud passes over the sun and
casts a large dark shadow on the mountainous backdrop during the
burial ceremony. [The blackish shadow symbolizes Dunson's violent
tendencies that will emerge following the trampling death of a cowboy
by his own herd.]
Immediately after the short service, Dunson reaches
for a bullwhip and threatens Kenneally with it in a severe public
whipping in front of everyone, for the loss of several hundred head
of cattle and another man's life: "You started all this...we're
three or four hundred head short and you killed Dan Latimer...stealin'
sugar like a kid. Well, they whip kids to teach 'em better." Although
Kenneally admits he was wrong ("I was wrong, awful wrong")
when cattle and supplies were lost in the stampede, he resists being
lashed to a wagon wheel and mercilessly punished for his childish
crime. He reaches for his gun to defend himself. For the first time
in the film, Matt decides to step in and decisively challenge Dunson's
authority. Matt beats Dunson to the draw and wounds Kenneally in
the shoulder rather than killing him:
Matt: You'd have shot him right between the eyes.
Dunson: Just as sure as you're standin' there. Well, you shot him.
You can take care of him.
In an oft-repeated motif and refrain in the film, Groot,
Tom's faithful old friend, tells him that he stepped out of line
when punishing Kenneally:
"You was wrong, Mr. Dunson." The other cowpokes gather around
a painfully-wounded Bunk on the ground and administer aid to him -
taking the side of the repentant man who felt responsible for what
he did and was punishing himself enough. Kenneally is to be treated
and then sent back to Texas. Although Cherry admires Matt's fast gun,
he accuses Matt of being "too soft":
But your heart's soft. Too soft. It may get you hurt
some day.
The next narration in the pages of the diary tells
of more hardships, as the cattle drive pushes on toward Missouri
with one less grub wagon and short rations:
Forty days and the dust turned to rain. Short rations
with Dunson driving both cattle and men. There was no turning back
despite the loss of the other grub wagon. Nights were spent in
keeping the herd...
Torrential rains soak the cowhands and the soil, turning
everything into mud. As they are served short rations at the chuckwagon,
the men grumble about the bad food - only beans and "lousy muck" called
coffee: "A man can't eat this kind of food. After we lost another
grub wagon, we should have turned back." Dunson inflexibly shows
no mercy toward Teeler's complaints:
Well, we didn't turn back and we're not goin' to.
And even if we had, I couldn't replace what we lost. I'm broke.
Got nothin' to buy it with. So you're on short rations and bad
coffee. And you're gonna be until we finish the drive. And you're
gonna finish it...Like it or not, that's it.
More narration from the next page of the diary tells
of the growing rebellion and mutinous feelings among the men toward
Dunson - now feeling like an outsider:
Sixty days, tired cattle and tired men. Trouble was
not far off. The men sat in small groups, sullen and morose. The
food became worse and Dunson was constantly on the alert for the
first sign of mutiny. He felt as a man alone...
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